Pages

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Excerpt from Karma’s a Killer by Tracy Weber

Author's note: I’ve been entranced by the
friendship my dog has with several local crows for years, so it seemed natural
to include them in my newest mystery.
The excerpt below features Blackie, a rehabilitated crow who will play
an interesting role in the mystery. ~

Tracy

Excerpt from Karma's a Killer

Judith
yelled, “Hey, stop! What are you doing?” Even Tiffany ran over to check out the
commotion.

Blackie’s
cage lay open on the ground. He stood next to it, looking confused. A teenage
girl waved her arms and stomped her feet, trying to scare him away. “Go on,
fly! Be free! Animals should never be prisoners!”

I’d
never met the young woman who was yelling, but I recognized her outfit: black
jeans, black boots, long-sleeved black T-shirt decorated with an orange flame
emblem. The jagged ends of her purple-black hair brushed against multiple
silver ear-piercings.

Blackie
cocked his head right, then left, then right again, as if paradoxically
confused, entranced, and annoyed by the oddly adorned female. He tried to
approach her; he tried to make friends; I’m pretty sure he asked for a peanut.
Each time he hopped closer, she shooed him away, calling him names and ordering
him to take flight.He
finally took her advice. He flapped his wings and soared—away from his supposed
freedom and straight to Judith’s shoulder.The
whole episode was laughable, at least at first. Blackie clicked, preened, and
nuzzled Judith’s ear, looking happy and completely at home. Goth Girl yelled,
waved her arms, and tried to scare him away from afar. “Get out of here before
that evil animal terrorist traps you again!”Judith
turned toward Goth Girl and shouted, “Shut your trap, you little punk! You’ll
scare him.”Blackie
ignored them both. He let out a loud caw and flew from Judith’s shoulder to my
table, where he landed next to Maggie’s clipboard. He cocked his head forward
and stared, transfixed by her shiny keys.“Blackie,
no!” Judith yelled.Her
words had no effect. Three quick hops later, Blackie leaned down and picked up
the key ring. Judith snatched Bella’s bag of dog cookies, grabbed a large
handful, and threw. Miniature goats rained to the ground in a five-foot radius.“Look,
Blackie! Treats!”It
almost worked.Blackie
paused, distracted by the yummy-looking morsels littering the grass. For a
split second, he dropped the keys.Judith
lunged, faster than I would have thought possible for a seventy-five-year-old
woman with obvious arthritis. But before she could reach him, Blackie picked up
the key ring again, looped it securely around the bottom half of his beak, and
took flight, carrying his treasure off into the distance.Crows
cawed from every direction, as if celebrating his victory. A half-dozen dropped
down to clean up the plunder. By the time I looked back at Blackie’s cage, Goth
Girl had disappeared.

About Karma’s a Killer:

Yoga
instructor Kate Davidson is about to discover that when it comes to murder,
there’s no place like om. When she agrees to teach doga—yoga for dogs—at a
fundraiser for Dogma, a local animal rescue, Kate believes the only real damage
will be to her reputation. But when an animal rights protest at the event leads
to a suspicious fire and a drowning, a few downward-facing dogs will be the
least of Kate’s problems…

The
police arrest Dharma, a woman claiming to be Kate’s estranged mother, and
charge her with murder. To prove Dharma’s innocence, Kate, her boyfriend
Michael, and her German shepherd sidekick Bella dive deeply into the worlds of
animal activism, organizational politics, and the dangerous obsessions that
drive them.

And
if solving a murder weren't complicated enough, Kate will also have to decide
whether or not to reconcile with the estranged mother who abandoned her over
thirty years ago. Not to mention having to contend with an almost-bankrupt
animal rescue, a cantankerous crow, an unwanted pigeon houseguest, and a rabbit
in a doga class. What could possibly go wrong?

A
taut tale with more twists and turns than a vinyasa yoga class, Karma’s a
Killer brims with suspense, wit and whimsy. With a to-die-for plot, sensational
storyline, and charming characters—of both the two- and four-legged
varieties—Karma’s a Killer is a clever, colorful, and utterly captivating cozy
mystery.

Tracy
Weberis the author of the
award-winning Downward Dog Mysteries series.
The first book in the series, Murder
Strikes a Pose, won the Maxwell Award for Fiction and was nominated for the
Agatha award for Best First Novel.

A
certified yoga therapist, Tracy is the owner of Whole Life Yoga, a Seattle yoga
studio, as well as the creator and director of Whole Life Yoga’s teacher
training program. She loves sharing her passion for yoga and animals in any way
possible.

Tracy
and her husband Marc live in Seattle with their challenging yet amazing German Shepherd,
Tasha. When she’s not writing, Tracy spends her time teaching yoga, walking
Tasha, and sipping Blackthorn cider at her favorite ale house.

Karma’s a Killer is her third novel. For more
information on Tracy and the Downward Dog Mysteries, visit her author website: http://TracyWeberAuthor.com/